The comments come as views submitted to Trai, which on May 1had set the ball rolling for laying down rules that carriers must follow for testing of networks — a contentious issue that came into focus in the lead up to Reliance Jio’s commercial launch on September 5 last year.A controversy erupted around Jio’s testing of network and services, during which it enrolled 1.5 million users. While incumbents alleged that Jio was offering full-fledged services under the guise of test connections, Jio denied any wrongdoing. In their submissions to the regulator, which closes discussions on this issue on June 26, the incumbents individually and through Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said that present rules clearly state that the enrolment of subscribers is not permitted before the commercial launch, and alleged that the regulator delayed examination of the issue.“We note that the context has now been changed to laying down future guidelines instead of examining past compliance,” the industry body said. It added that the regulator should not prospectively allow enrollment of subscribers and set a defined timeline with about 60-100 SIMs only, for testing purposes. Bharti Airtel said that Trai’s consultation paper came too late and was no longer relevant, since the “damage has already been done by the new entrant”.It added that Trai’s acknowledgment that the enrolment of subscribers as test users by Jio was the background of consultations, indicated that its recommendation to impose penalties for proving inadequate points of interconnect (PoIs) to Reliance Jio, was based on “incorrect assessment on the ground”.Trai had recommended in October last year that DoT should levy Rs 1,050-crore penalty each on Airtel and Vodafone, and Rs 950 crore on Idea, and backed its views last month.

Source: Economic Times June 20, 2017 18:28 UTC